A ‘totally different’ Rockets team is on the rise again

Fans react as Houston Rockets center Clint Capela (15) saves the ball from going out of bounds in the fourth quarter against the Boston Celtics at the Toyota Center on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018 in Houston. Rockets won the game 127-113.

Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer

The Rockets are different now.

They have been humbled, cautioned even, since they last faced the New Orleans Pelicans on opening night, expecting to pick up where they had left off in May, assuming the first of maybe another 65 wins on their way to a repeat deep playoff run, only to discover the best version of themselves was a foolhardy aspiration because they could not summon the good version.

They were awful in the near-20-point blowout home loss to the Pelicans, who scored 131 points. It should have been a wake-up call that they were out of whack. Instead they kept losing through October and P.J. Tucker summarized their 1-5 record as “embarrassing.”

They fixed some issues in November. They made shrewd adjustments in December. They disappeared Carmelo Anthony, honed Danuel House Jr., temporarily lost Chris Paul to injury and acquired Austin Rivers along the way.

Heading into New Orleans on Saturday for their final road test of 2018, the Rockets, winners of eight of their last nine games, look sharper and are playing more savvy than the rusty veterans who had let the Pelicans drive, run and rebound all over them 10 weeks ago.

Tucker, a reliable source of self-criticism, did not go so far as his coach. To him, the initial identity crisis has been solved, but the team has yet to restore that identity fully.

“We’re still trying to figure it out,” Tucker said. “It’s not like it’s a different team, maybe a different attitude, scheme a little different, a little smarter. We’re the same team, just playing a little bit better.”

Comparing their first nine games with their last, the Rockets are scoring more on drives, sinking more 3-pointers, securing more rebounds and allowing fewer points, and have raised their effective field-goal percentage from being the NBA’s fourth worst to the sixth best.

James Harden averaged 28 points through the first eight games. He has rocketed to 40.5 in the last eight.

D’Antoni chuckled at the notion that it is a question if Harden, the reigning Most Valuable Player, should be in the discussion for this season’s award.

“I thought maybe he’d have a category by himself,” he said. “He just had a slow start, and we were only in 14th place, so I can understand why the conversation didn’t start off real quick, but anybody who’s been watching basketball the next month knows he’s had a phenomenal streak,” D’Antoni said. “Probably playing better then when they gave him the MVP.”

Harden’s fireworks have ignited the scoring, but the grunt work — defense and rebounding — has ensured his output resulted in victories.

Be it insightful or clever framing of the issue, D’Antoni essentially blocked out the Rockets’ dreadful first six weeks Friday, when he narrowed the focus on the team’s recent defensive performance. He compared it to the way the team had played exactly one year ago, which had nearly an identical overall defensive ranking.

“The most important thing is we’re getting better,” D’Antoni said. “Last year we were about 12th (in defense) at this time, and we turned it on after the All-Star break.”

It is difficult to ignore the start for the Rockets this season, but they are trending upward in every major area.

D’Antoni’s latest significant defensive adjustment also is paying off. By reducing the switch-on-everyone approach, the Rockets are keeping centers Clint Capela and Nene from blanketing the perimeter on switches so they do not betray so many rebound chances.

Capela has enjoyed a binge of 64 rebounds in the past three games, but the larger effect is complicated. The Rockets have a low defensive rebounding percentage. They have improved it recently, closer to the league average, which has been enough to buffer a winning scoring margin by the final buzzer.

The Rockets have committed to the adjustment since dabbling with it in a game they should have won in Dallas. They unfurled their eight-out-of-nine streak since then, suggesting a strong correlation.

D’Antoni summed up other improvements: “We’re in a lot better shape, getting used to the grind, less injuries, more players, Danuel House has helped a lot, now Austin Rivers is going to help a lot to take minutes off people. Just a lot of little factors that add up to it.”

Without Paul and James Ennis III — who is expected to return from his hamstring injury Saturday or Monday — D’Antoni has used House in the starting lineup to absorb and deliver physical punishment early and then gone to Rivers as an additional scoring ball-handler to close out the last two games.

Overall the offense, spiced by Harden’s hot hand and a dash of Rivers’ late-game buckets, is sizzling. Only the Toronto Raptors have a better offensive rating this season.

The expectations in Houston sound more measured than they did opening night. Another first-place finish is not the topic of conversation, but the Rockets are far from considering their play embarrassing.

“We’ve got to get back to the top one or two or three seeds in the league,” D’Antoni said. “That’s our goal. It’d be disappointing if we don’t do it.”

D’Antoni harkened back to the Rockets’ former selves again.

“That’s kind of how we have to do it this year,” he said. “After the All-Star break we’ll have to make a run for whatever we’re making a run for.”

That was something with which Tucker could agree.

“Are we where we want to be?” Tucker said. “Obviously not. The goal is to be in April, and build towards that. Right now we’re building towards that.”

Hunter Atkins joined the Houston Chronicle in April 2016. He has written for Rolling Stone, Forbes, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Popular Science and ESPN The Magazine, among others. His assignments have ranged from an investigative article on gun violence in Chicago for Rolling Stone to the story of the world champion in competitive stair climbing for the New York Times.